Mailpiece creation systems such as mailpiece inserters are typically used by organizations such as banks, insurance companies, and utility companies to periodically produce a large volume of mailpieces, e.g., monthly billing or shareholders income/dividend statements. In many respects, mailpiece inserters are analogous to automated assembly equipment inasmuch as sheets, inserts and envelopes are conveyed along a feed path and assembled in or at various modules of the mailpiece inserter. That is, the various modules work cooperatively to process the sheets until a finished mailpiece is produced.
A mailpiece inserter includes a variety of apparatus/modules for conveying and processing sheet material along the feed path. Depending upon the speed and capabilities of the inserter, such apparatus typically include various/modules for (i) feeding and singulating printed content material in a “feeder module”, (ii) accumulating the content material to form a multi-sheet collation in an “accumulator”, (iii) folding the content material to produce a variety of fold configurations such as a C-fold, Z-fold, bi-fold and gate fold, in a “folder”, (iv) feeding mailpiece inserts such as coupons, brochures, and pamphlets, in combination with the content material, in a “chassis module” (v) inserting the folded/unfolded and/or nested content material into an envelope in an “envelope inserter”, (vi) sealing the filled envelope in “sealing module” (vii) printing recipient/return addresses and/or postage indicia on the face of the mailpiece envelope at a “print station” and (viii) controlling the flow and speed of the content material at various locations along the feed path of the mailpiece inserter by a series of “buffer stations”. In addition to these commonly employed apparatus/modules, mailpiece inserter may also include other modules for (i) binding the module to close and seal filled mailpiece envelopes and a (ii) a printing module for addressing and/or printing postage indicia.
These modules are typically arranged in series or parallel to maximize the available floor space and minimize the total “footprint” of the inserter. Depending upon the arrangement of the various modules, it is oftentimes necessary for operators to feed the inserters, i.e., with envelopes, inserts and other sheet material, from two or more locations about the periphery of the inserter. Furthermore, depending upon the “rate of fill/feed”, some stations are more workload intensive than other stations. For example, an insert station of a chassis module may demand seventy-five percent (75%) of an operator's time while an envelope feed station may require twenty-five percent (25%) of another operator.
While a cursory examination of the workload requirements may lead to the conclusion that greater efficiencies are achievable, i.e., by employing a single operator to perform both functions, the configuration of many mailpiece inserters oftentimes does not facilitate the combination of these operations. For example, attending to the chassis module, i.e., adding inserts/sheet material to each of the overhead feeders, is performed from one side of the inserter while attending to the envelope feed station is performed from another side of the inserter. As such, it is difficult for a single operator to move between stations to maintain i.e., feeding sheet material to, both stations.
In addition to the distance and inconvenience associated with maintaining each station, it is important to ensure that the envelope feed station is properly “primed” and continuously fed. That is, the first six (6) to ten (10) envelopes must be fed into the ingestion area of the feed station at a prescribed angle and, thereafter, by a continuous stream of shingled envelopes. Should a gap, break/interruption, or discontinuity develop in a shingled stack, it will be necessary to “re-prime” the feed station. As such, re-priming requires that the feed station be temporarily stopped/halted such that the next six (6) to ten (10) envelopes, i.e., those immediately following the gap/break in the stack, be fed into the ingestion area of the station. It will be appreciated that the requirement to re-prime the station results in inefficient operation of the station.
A need, therefore, exists for a method for feeding sheet material as a continuous shingled stack to a downstream processing station a continuous stream sheet material conveyor system which facilitates one-sided operation of a sheet handling apparatus, such as a mailpiece inserter, to maintain efficient operation thereof, e.g., a continuous stack of shingled sheet material.